This is GTA in ridiculous medieval times, this is Rustler

April 20, 2020 – Developer Jutsu Games isn’t shying away. In fact they are actively promoting it; Rustler is a “tribute to the good old GTA 2 style and gameplay, fusing it with a historically inaccurate medieval setting”. And they are not joking around saying this. Remember the paint shop in GTA? While the cops were on your tail you could get rid of them by driving a vehicle true a garage, get a new paint job and the heat would get of your back. Instead of the paint shop, Rustler has the ‘Pimp a Horse’ and it does the same thing to a horse. Speaking of cops. Rustler has them as well, but since the game plays out in medieval times, knights in blue and red costumes try to arrest or kill you. The ones chasing you by horse even have some kind of flashing sirene. Of course without the sound of a sirene because… that would be ridiculous! These and many more parodies on GTA2 are now playable in Rustler: Prologue. An introduction (demo) into the game and free to download at Steam.

Mixed reviews due to controls

Maybe you already clicked on the Steam link and saw the ‘Mixed’ reviews. So let’s jump right into this. An overall majority of the negative feedback is related to the controls. The prologue is available since April 9th and the developers got a lot of negative scores since. On April 18th the devs released an update with major fixes to these controls and added a new experimental control mode. Basically you control the direction which your character faces with your mouse and with A, W, D and S you control the direction you move. The two control modes give you the ability to choose how A, W, S and D are oriented. Always to the north? Or always the direction your character is facing? The last one is experimental and added after the update.

Personally i started out with the first (pre-update) controls and after a few minutes switched to the experimental and those felt a lot better. Still, it takes time to get used to them and there were times i struggled a little bit, but i do believe this is a matter of getting used to. And maybe the developers will fine tune the control during further development of the game. Comparing the new controls with the old I can understand why there was negative feedback, but the developer has made adjustments and i would recommend everyone to give it a second change. After all it’s still a game in development. Things happen, things get adjusted.

A guy named Guy

Guy is the name. Why Guy? Because apparently his parents were to lazy to give him a proper one. Guy is a young man who spends much of his time drunk, fighting with others and just being an asshole. As a peasant he takes on all kinds of jobs to get by until hears about a Grand Tournament at the capitol where only noble knights can participate. The victor of this tournament wins the hand of the princes. And thus an adventure is born. Since your just a simple peasant and will never be able to participate legally, there is only one way. Trying to sneak in the tournament by acting as a noble. But there is a long road ahead in order to accomplish this.

In the prologue I was introduced into a few quests, like stealing a horse from a knight. A simple task until the ‘police knights’ got on my tale. I tried to shake them of but they are a persistent bunch. So the only we to get rid of the heat, just like GTA, is by going to a paint shop. It isn’t a hard one to mis. On the side of the garage there is a large sign: Pimp a Horse. I laugh because of how stupid and yet still funny it is. Just like the parking spots for horses, graffiti paintings all around the city which often tell the King to fuck off and many more big and little references to either GTA or as the developers call it “Monty Python” humor.

Punch the bard

GTA is famous for its music. There was nothing more satisfying then tuning your car radio into a good station and listening to some music. Whether you were on a killing spree or just cruising down a boulevard. There was always a station that complimented the setting. No surprise, Rustler doesn’t has radiostations, but does have bards! A guy with an instrument who is for hire and will follow you around playing music, Rustler style. Sick of a song? Punch the bard in the face and he changes tune. And the best part? He will follow you everywhere,. Jumping on the back of your horse and even stays on your side during sword fights until he accidentally gets stapt of course.

The full game of Rustler will be available for PC. There is no release date announced. The prologue is available at Steam